Eaton Compressor & Fabrication Inc. Starting New Company Called Eaton-Max. Maker of Air Compressors Plans to Build a Bigger Facility, Add Workers to Break Into the Retail Store Market (14145)

An Ohio air compressor manufacturer plans to build a new facility, triple employment and break into a new market by the end of the year. Eaton Compressor & Fabrication Inc. in Eaton is starting a new company called Eaton-Max, which will sell directly to major chain stores like Lowe’s, Home Depot and other retailers. President Matt Cain expects to crank out 50 units a day shortly after opening. “We know the demand is going to be there, that’s why we’re getting into that side of it,” Cain said. “This is going to be a global thing; we plan to be selling globally, too.”

Prior to the opening of Eaton-Max, the company has only sold its products factory direct to customers. Eaton Compressor makes compressors from ½ horsepower to 200 horsepower as well as a complete line of air tools for industries like body shops, machine shops, granite fabrication shops and residential customers. “We pretty much hit anything in manufacturing and home use,” Cain said. “We build it, we make it.”

The new facility will be 60,000 square feet, more than triple the size of the current building, and Cain expects the number of workers to jump from 17 to more than 75 when the new business gets rolling. The new jobs will include salespeople and assembly line and service workers.

Cain is considering three locations, anywhere from three to ten miles from his current site, and plans to invest $5 million in land, a new building and new equipment. The site will be about 15 acres. But, he said he delayed plans because the city of Eaton hasn’t come up with any tax incentives for him to stay in the city. Meanwhile, in an adjacent county, the city of Brookville offered the company a 15-year tax abatement worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. “We’re wanting to stay in Preble County because we’ve been there for years, so we’ll see what happens,” Cain said. “I was hoping to be in (the new facility) by this summer, now looks like it will be late in the year.”

Eaton City Manager Dave Daily said the city wasn’t able to come up with tax incentives because the process typically takes six to nine months and the Brookville site is part of an established Enterprise Zone which is already approved for abatements. “On these abatements we have to get the state involved, negotiate agreements on job creations, we have to get the local school district involved,” Daily said. It’s a timely process.”

Cain’s father opened Eaton Compressor in his basement in 1977. “He passed away last January and he wouldn’t believe in the last year since he’s been gone how much this business has grown,” he said. “I mean it is huge, it has grown huge.” Eaton is about 25 miles west of Dayton.

For more information contact Eaton Compressor & Fabrication Inc. and Eaton-Max at 937-456-1752 or visit them on the Web at www.eatoncompressor.com .

Joe Cogliano II is a freelance writer based in Dayton, Ohio. Reach him at joecog2@sbcglobal.net